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WTH is WITH this Bunning dude anyway? Ky has counties with some of the highest UE rates in the country and he's blocking the UI extensions to his own constituents?
WTH is WITH this Bunning dude anyway? Ky has counties with some of the highest UE rates in the country and he's blocking the UI extensions to his own constituents?
Bunning has no power on his own -- he is doing this at the behest of the Senate Republican leadership.
The GOP leadership is having Bunning spin his wheels and take up floor time until Mitch McConnell agrees to a compromise with Harry Reid about which expired/expiring tax breaks will be added to the UI/COBRA extension legislation (those private discussions are still underway).
Whenever an acceptable agreement is reached privately, the Republicans will shut Bunning down and move to amend and pass the legislation.
Wasn't the whole "spin' to taking the extensions out of the jobs bill that then they would be passed in a bill on their own? Oh right, they're politicians and as most used to be lawyers we know if their lips are moving they're lying LOL
Wasn't the whole "spin' to taking the extensions out of the jobs bill that then they would be passed in a bill on their own? Oh right, they're politicians and as most used to be lawyers we know if their lips are moving they're lying LOL
What's even worse is most of them were slip and fall lawyers. The worst of the worst....yet they still comprehend the constitution....
Wasn't the whole "spin' to taking the extensions out of the jobs bill that then they would be passed in a bill on their own? Oh right, they're politicians and as most used to be lawyers we know if their lips are moving they're lying LOL
Earlier this week, I posted on several threads that multiple media sources were reporting that Majority Leader Harry Reid was pressing to extend existing unemployment extensions and COBRA subsidies through December 2010.
Reid hoped to pass two measures. The first includes a 30-day extension of several soon-to-expire provisions -- including the EUC Tier cut-off date of February 28, 2010. This bill was passed on Thursday night by the House.
In private conversations on the Senate floor this week, Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have been negotiating the second broader, longer-term measure. It is believed that this measure could include a full-year extension of the federal government's 53-week EUC Tier program and the 65% COBRA subsidy. It may also include extending payment by the federal government of 100% of states' EB programs.
Reid believes that Republicans who have been opposed to additional spending on unemployment will vote for those extensions if, in return, they get critical tax breaks extended.
The package extending those tax breaks was cut by Reid from the earlier version of the jobs creation bill -- supposedly to keep it available for a more strategic use.
That package includes more than 40 expired tax breaks totaling about $31 billion. That's right -- "billion" with a "b". Many of those tax breaks are very important to some of the Republicans' most influential constituents and largest campaign contributors.
I think Reid will try very hard to get the House's 30-day extension bill passed by the Senate this week. But the bill's successful passage by the Senate will depend on how sincere Republican Leader Mitch McConnell thinks Reid is about using the month of March to cut a deal on the tax break expiration package.
If the Republicans think it's worthwhile to give Reid the 30-day extension, they will do it quickly. Bunning and Kyl are not serious players in this scenario -- just distractions while the real negotiations go on privately.
BTW, this is a summary of numerous posts I've done on this subject this week; the respective sources for all of the info are in the original posts.
What's even worse is most of them were slip and fall lawyers. The worst of the worst....yet they still comprehend the constitution....
I'm no particular fan of the members of Congress in either chamber, but the majority of them are certainly not former "slip and fall" lawyers -- in addition to being untrue, it is also a "cheap shot" to generalize about their backgrounds in those terms.
For example, here are highlights of the backgrounds of the four legislators mentioned in my previous post on this subject of UI and COBRA extensions:
Harry Reid (D-NV), former Chairman of Nevada's Gaming Commission
Mitch McConnell (R-KY), former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for President Gerald Ford and judge-executive of Jefferson County, Kentucky
Jim Bunning (R-KY), 17-year Major League Baseball player, primarily for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies
Jon Kyl (R-AR), Phi Beta Kappa and Editor of the Arizona Law Review; former Partner with Jennings Strouss, a major law firm in the Southwest U.S. specializing in Corporate & Business law
My crack about lawyers was out of a sense of frustration at these people playing politics with people's lives.
I understood your post completely -- and frankly, I agree with your assessment of their behavior.
I was responding to the "slip and fall" characterization by the other poster, which is a derogatory smear against a profession -- and, as a generalization about these Senators and Representatives, is factually incorrect.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmcclure
What's even worse is most of them were slip and fall lawyers. The worst of the worst....yet they still comprehend the constitution....
Well, I think the vast majority feel that most politicians are self serving a-holes and really don't care what their past profession was.
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